Zenario 7.2 CMS is available for download!

4 Apr 2016

Tony Butcher

Datasets now with WYSIWYG-style editing

Zenario's Dataset feature lets you extend commonly-used data storage areas, such a Users/Contacts, Locations, the new Documents system, plus many custom-built database areas. We introduced Datasets some versions back, but it now gets a stunning new drag-and-drop interface.

When a record is Dataset-based, you'll see an indicator when you edit a record. Like this, when editing Users/Contacts:

You can click that icon to go to the Users Dataset, ready to add or edit fields. Here's an example, where an administrator is adding a select-list to the Dataset:

With the field in place, it's easy to edit:

Once the Dataset change has been saved, it has the effect of making changes to the MySQL database structure. This keeps the database schema easy to understand and efficient. The new field is visible when editing a user:

Datasets go way beyond that. Each individual field can have the following, all accessible from the new Dataset editor:

you can add tabs to the Dataset, so as to keep fields in logical groupings

you can make fields only be displayed on condition of the state of another field

whether a field should be visible in the Organizer panel, and whether an administrator should be able to filter on a field by value, or sort the panel on the field values.

Easy-to-edit User Forms

In parallel with the changes to Datasets, we have made some huge changes to the User Forms system.

These now have a similar WYSIWYG type interface through which you can define a form for use on a site.

A form can have a number of components:

regular fields (text, text area, selects, radios, checkboxes etc.)

"linked" fields, where data submitted into a form field is linked with a field on the Users dataset (i.e. data submitted via a User Form directly populates the User record)

page breaks

calculated numeric fields (e.g. the sum of two numeric fields) and mirrored fields (which might be used on a final "summary" page of a multi-page form to re-state previously entered data)

forms can be in-line or in a pop-up (modal) window

you can add custom CSS to make forms appear exactly the way you want, including multi-column forms.

You can make stunning forms using a standardised management system. The new form editor looks like this:

You can build up a form just by dragging fields from the left-hand side to the right. They can be independent fields, centralised data source fields (like a list of countries or regions), or fields that are linked with the Users Dataset.

You can select a field in the right panel to edit it:

As shown above, you can change the label as it would appear to visitors, its visibility (e.g. it can be visible on condition of another field's value), mandatory, its validation pattern.

For more demanding uses there is an Advanced option that allows you to define more things:

With these Advanced options you can choose to pre-populated the field with some default value; this might be the case on a form that displays previously-stored details, such as an extranet user's profile. For developers, there is an option to "call a module's static method", such that the form consults another module within Zenario in order to pre-populate the value.

Finally there are styling options, with the ability to set CSS classes. Here is another nice form we've recently built:

Other improvements in 7.2

Improved management area for content items in Organizer

We have reorganised the Content Items panel in Organizer. It's now more convenient to get to the HTML, News, Blog and other content item panels. If your copy of Zenario has additional content types, they will appear here too.

Filters are improved. You can now easily filter by:

content item status

language

layout.

Of course the full range of filters in the "adjust view" panel are still there, but easy filtering can be achieved with a lot less clicking!

TinyMCS editor in the Comments and Forums

We are now using the TinyMCE editor in our comments and forum plugins. This has a lot less bugs and a lot more features than the old editor. It now has the ability to include pre-formatted code.

Content Type settings

It's now more easy to define the behaviours of content items according to their content type. This is found in Organizer, in Configuration->Site Settings. Find the content type you wish to edit and click Properties:

The ability to set Categories is disabled by default (to save on button clutter), but it's easy to enable. (You would normally only need Categories if you have more than one Content Summary List, e.g. to display different topics of news or blog entries).

You can choose whether to see meta tags when you edit content items (we recommend Description but not Keywords). For time-sensitive content, you can make Release Date available for editing, or even mandatory. There's the option to set a Writer field (e.g. the author of a blog entry) and to enable Summary of the item to be set (this will appear in a Content Summary List, that links to the main content item).

If you have enabled the Release Date or Writer fields, they will now be auto-populated when creating a content item.

Once these things are nicely and appropriately set up for your site, your authors should see just the things they need, and should not forget to enter data that are important.

Responsive email newsletters

Designers can now use CSS styles and media queries when composing a newsletter.

This means that you can create slicker newsletters that are responsive when opened by a recipient. To access this, you will need to enter CSS on the new Advanced tab when editing a newsletter.

Minor features

You can now disable the checks for Apache and MySQL in the installer, if you wish to use an alternative stack, such as NGINX.

You can now set a port number for the database connection, should you wish to connect to MySQL on a non-standard port number (i.e. other than 3306).

Administrators with the Manage user/contact groups permission can now create a group without also needing the System Manager permissions. (Previously both permissions were needed before an administrator could create a group.)

When editing things such as an extranet user in a floating admin box, you can now see the id of the user you are editing at the top of the box.

The "pickers" in floating admin boxes now show the icon of the thing you selected as well as the name.

When you delete an item in Organizer, the next item in the list will now be automatically selected.

Bug fixes

Fixed a bug where you could cause an infinite redirection loop on your homepage by setting a primary domain, creating some spare domains, and then disabling the primary domain. (Spare domains are now disabled when the primary domain is removed, as was originally intended.)

If you enable the Offer to save your web passwords option in Chrome, and then click the Create a user or contact button in Organizer, Chrome will no longer enter your administrator name and password into the form on the screen. (We had fixed this issue back in version 7.1, but a new version of Chrome required a new fix for the same problem!)

Fixed a bug where the 'resume' button in the Newsletters Module did not work.

Fixed a bug where "double-quotes" were stripped from the filenames of uploaded files.

Fixed a bug where the wrong images were sometimes displayed if you put two Image Container plugins on the same page and enabled plugin caching.

Fixed a bug where the Create secondary node button on the Admin Toolbar allowed administrators to create a glitched menu node outside of a menu section.

Fixed a bug in Organizer where you could not see the label on a page number higher than 999.